Alright everyone, here are a few answers to some of the top questions getting asked by community members:
Can we mod the game? Can we map for the game?
And - "Can I become a team member / developer?
~ Minimum requirements for the UDK
- Windows XP SP3 (32-bit only), Windows Vista, or Windows 7
- 2.0+ GHz processor
- 2 GB system RAM / Can use less - but slower
- SM3-compatible video card / needed to install UDK
- 3 GB free hard drive space
a.) A computer capable of handling the tools.
b.) Quite a bit of patience and knowledge to make a good map.
UDK Level Editing & Discussion Links:
udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitFAQ.html
udn.epicgames.com/Three/LevelEditingHome.html
www.unrealengine.com/en/udk/documentation/
www.unrealengine.com/en/udk/downloads/ - Feb 2013 Beta2
forums.epicgames.com/forums/366-UDK
If you know how maps are made for modern games, you will know the answer to this - while it depends on your scope of detail, in general it's a much more involved process compared to the mapping we did in the 90s on engines such as id-tech 2 (Quake) and of course the original Descent. In Descent you used a form of cubic subtractive BSP to make maps, and they were pretty much error-free. In Unreal it starts with BSP, but creating clean and efficient BSP is very important to begin with and not as easy as it sounds. Then, to make a map look state-of-the-art, you won't get around many more things such as meshing, decorating with meshes, lighting, using particle effects, scripting with Kismet etc.udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitFAQ.html
udn.epicgames.com/Three/LevelEditingHome.html
www.unrealengine.com/en/udk/documentation/
www.unrealengine.com/en/udk/downloads/ - Feb 2013 Beta2
forums.epicgames.com/forums/366-UDK
Yes, you can make a map purely from BSP and texture it, put some lights in and leave it at that. Just don't expect it to look any different from Descent 1.
We will only accept applications from level designers who have experience with modern mapping, not necessarily in Unreal although that is preferred. If you just want to get your head around modern mapping with UDK, you should stick with it and learn the craft before applying. Applications with no reference work (i.e. levels you built in a modern engine) will be turned down.
With community members being so interested in making their own maps and engaging in the game beyond playing, I'm seriously considering an option that would make the multiplayer component of the game more open than the single-player game. This would entail an easy system to allow hobbyist mappers to make and add maps to a repository that every player could access, effectively letting the community generate most of the multiplayer content themselves. This would be in line with what Descent was: a collection of user-made levels that were distributed through official channels (such as Interplay's website and Levels of the World) and played a lot more than the handful of official MP maps. It would also give us developers more time to focus on the single-player campaign while the game could exist in the public as a growing multiplayer 6DOF shooter which gets its fresh content from users and not just the developers.
Quoted from: Max aka MadMax1998 @ forum.preparefordescent.com
1DVD: Content creation is where it’s @
All links were valid as of this writing, note me if you find a bad one!